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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 25. Not previously published.

These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer

For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare
Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New
York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the
British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the
Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the
Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University;
the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton
Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the
National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer
Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury
St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of
Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and
Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.

A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the
English Department of Nottingham Trent University.

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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.

Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded
in brackets.

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decimals.

The eleventh book The 11th Book of Roderick, the Last of the
Goths (1814). is indispensable, unless like Ld Byron I were to save
all trouble of continuous narrative by lines of convenient asterisks set at proper intervals. You will observe, – which indeed the
next book shows you, that Alphonso is a very important personage in Spanish history,
Alfonso I, King of Asturias 739–757, the central figure in Book 11. – & that the moment of his return is critical.
Had Pedro Pedro, Duke of Cantabria (d. 730), father of Alfonso I. & his people
not been thus prepared, the Moors would have secured the whole party, the preparation therefore has a direct purpose. – Adosinda
is a personage who has been introduced at first so strikingly, that it is better here to make her influence felt xx
rather than let her be seen. Quoad ‘As to’. the banner, the
vassals would have taken it without Pedros consent, & thence his speech.Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), Book 11, lines 168–169. Favinias character contrasts with
Gaudiosa, & from it the meeting derives its passion, which is to original, & to my feeling good.

I am in the 15 book – but my way is impeded has been impeded by indispositions of my own & of the
children: Lunus & Isabel are both
just ailing enough to give me a constant sense that something is not right as I would wish it, – if you understand what
that sort of disquietude is; & I have not been well myself, – first a cold affecting my chest, & yesterday & today
head aches proceeding from the stomach. Magnesia, heavenly Maid, – is at this moment playing upon my bowels as on a bag-pipe.
However to have exchanged head ache for growels is a good exchange, & is getting the malady, so far on its way out.

Thank you for the bills. Bedford had loaned Southey money. I shall
keep afloat till the next quarter be payable – or I can draw upon Longman.

Surely when you need a frank potential Gifford can procure you one,
for he regularly franks to me thro the Admiralty. I am heartily glad you have recovered the MS. Send it me in your next dispatch
& I will be at the trouble of restoring the article. The MS version of Southey’s
review of David Bogue (1750–1825; DNB) and James Bennet (1774–1862; DNB), The History of
Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1688–to the Year 1808 (1812); Walter Wilson (1781–1847; DNB),
History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches (1808–1814); Neal’s History of the Puritans
(1812), Quarterly Review, 10 (October 1813), 90–139. Southey, increasingly irritated by pre-publication changes
and cuts made by the Quarterly’s editor, had asked Bedford to retrieve it so that it was preserved for any
future use he cared to make of it; see Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 29 January 1814, Letter 2373.

I foresee that the Laureateship will cost me more time than any body else would have bestowed about it: For I must
do whatever is expected in the way of official composition, – & so do it as as to not to be out of humour with
myself. Here is a Marriage coming to – I have no right to grumble at the subject, – the condition of the office renders me liable
to such, & if Pindar could condescend to write upon demi-asses, which when he called them demi-horses were but mules
still, See Pindar (c. 522–443 BC), Olympian 5 and 6. of what
should I complain? – I have a plan in my head for the occasion, which I owe, to a chance occurrence in one of my morning walks
with the Deus Lunus. And if I do not put off beginning it till there be no time for
compleating it properly, it may be turn out well – At least there will be nothing common-place about it. The Prince Regent’s only child Charlotte
Augusta (1796–1817; DNB), had been engaged since December 1813 to the Hereditary Prince of Orange, William
(1792–1849; King of the Netherlands 1840–1849), the husband selected for her by her father and his advisers. As Poet Laureate,
Southey was required to write on the occasion. He began the required poem (The Lay of the Laureate. Carmen
Nuptiale) but in the event it was not needed as the engagement was broken off in June 1814. The Lay
was recycled in 1816 to celebrate Charlotte’s marriage to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (1790–1865; DNB).

Your xxx remark upon the beginning of the 8th bookRoderick, the Last of the Goths, Book 8, line 4. was occasioned by a mispunctuation – which must have
been an accidental. there was a semi-colon after thraldom; – instead of a comma. With this correction you will find the
passage perfectly clear.

Vauxhall Vauxhall Gardens, the famous south London pleasure gardens.
Southey may be referring to Roderick, the Last of the Goths (1814), Book 15, line 5. might have shown
you that leaves are grey by fire light. I first observed it travelling in the mail coach, – often afterwards when returning home
at Cintra by torch light

I have written six inscriptions, Southey’s ‘Inscriptions Triumphal and
Sepulchral, recording the acts of the British army in the Peninsula’ had been recently advertised as ‘nearly ready for
publication’ (e.g. in European Magazine, 65 (January 1814), 77). However, the promised volume did not appear
and only 18 of the proposed 30 inscriptions were written. They were not collected together until 1837–1838 when they appeared
in the last-lifetime edition of Southey’s Poetical Works. & shall ere long set-to to transcribe them
for your inspection. One of them is of inordinate length – about 70 lines, – but the subject required it, & inscriptions upon
paper need not be subject to the same prudential laws of measurement, as if <when> the expence of marble &
stone-cutting is to be taken into the account. This long one is upon Gen. MacKinnon – & has given very great satisfaction to
his family, who are the only persons that have seen it as yet. Henry Mackinnon
(1773–1812; DNB), who had died whilst storming the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, 19 January 1812. The poem was
‘To the Memory of Major-General Mackinnon’, published in 1837–1838 as the seventeenth of Southey’s Peninsular War
inscriptions. – I shall the sooner send you these, that when you see the manner of them, you may help me to such
xxxxxxxx facts as may be suitable to the monumental ones.

What is become of the Bust? A bust of Southey sculpted in 1813 by James
Smith (1775–1815). Is it <at> a stand because of the weather?

Will you learn from Wm Nicol William Nicol (fl.
1800s-1850s), bookseller and publisher. Nicol was also Assistant Paymaster in the Lord Steward’s office and thus had some responsibility for part of Southey’s salary. The Lord Steward, who has charge of the Royal Household’s domestic arrangements, had traditionally provided the Poet Laureate with a tierce of canary wine, as a supplement to his salary. The wine had been converted into an annual sum of £27, but this was still paid by the Lord Steward. when there is any money forthcoming at the Chamberlains office, & let the
Docstor know. Southey’s salary as
Poet Laureate was paid by the Lord Chamberlain’s office.John May has a power of attorney to receive it, & I have nothing more to do with it
while he & I live, than to save him trouble by letting him know when it is payable. The first quarter will be swallowed up by
fees. The manner in which this salary is disposed of makes me sincerely glad that I have got the appointment; – all things
considered a better income – such as would have placed me in comparative affluence, would probably have been less beneficial.

This is a trying season for your father. It has just carried off Mrs Woods mother Possibly the mother of Mrs Elizabeth Wood (c. 1747–1813) of Underbarrow; or a relative of Humphrey Senhouse, whose mother was Catherine Wood (dates unknown). here, at the age of 104, – in
the West Indies she might have lived a score of years longer; – & even here it was so little the effect of gradual decay that
we x may fairly say she was cut off; – Sharp sent down £10 to the poor
here, – & as much to Ambleside.

I want to the see the Letters of Calvus upon peace – but they have not yet reached me. Landor is the author.Letters Addressed to Lord Liverpool: And the Parliament on the Preliminaries of Peace (1814), published under
the pseudonym ‘Calvus’. Landor’s pamphlet demanded that Napoleon be deprived of all his power, preferably his life, and that
France at least be stripped of all territory acquired since the French Revolution. The Letters were modelled on
Junius’s. Landor had originally sent 3 of the letters to the Courier. He then prepared them for separate
publication, adding a fourth letter. The Courier eventually published part of this fourth letter on 12 January
1814. My paper Probably the Courier, Southey’s regular
newspaper at this time. has failed to night, which at this time is vexatious.

One word more concerning Roderick. Remember that he gives name to the poem; & that his
history is the subject of the poem, – not the restoration of Spain: Southey had, in fact,
refocused his poem. His original plan had been to centre it upon Pelayo [Pelagius] (d. 737; reigned 718–737), founder of the
Kingdom of Asturias, who began the Christian reconquest of the Iberian peninsula. just as in Anthony & Cleopatra
Shakespere chose their love for his drama, – & not the fate of the Roman world. The action therefore
consists not so much in battles &c, which are only incidental to the story, but in developing the character of
Roderic & restoring him to that estimation which he at the commencement he has totally lost. Remember too that I
disclaim all rules, for poems are not like plum-puddings to be made according to a receipt: – you must construct them as you would
a house according to the xxxxx x xx the xx ground-plot, aspect & other local circumstances. – I am thinking already
of my next poem, & hesitating whether to begin upon Oliver Goffe, An early idea for
‘Oliver Newman’, left incomplete at his death. In Southey’s poem, Newman was the godson of Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658;
DNB) and the son of William Goffe (d. 1679?; DNB), Puritan, regicide and major general, who
fled to New England in 1660 after he was excluded from the Act of Indemnity after the Restoration. Robin Hood, Southey eventually collaborated with Caroline Bowles on a romance on the legendary outlaw.
It was left unfinished at his death, and a fragment was published posthumously in 1847. – the Persian – or the Runic
romance. The Persian (i.e. Zoroastrian) and Runic romances were not
written.